Alienation and Acceptance
by srslyallison
Summary: He hadn't met a green-blooded hobgoblin like this before. Complete!
1. Chapter 1

**((A/N hallo! okay, as a disclaimer, first of all, i don't own any of this except adie. she's definitely mine. also...i saw the movie, loved it, and i've done some research of course, but don't be shocked if i make a mistake in canon, haha. i haven't seen any of the shows, but i've visited a lot of wikipedia and seen the movie four times, so...thanks for reading! reviews are loved, of course c: ))**

Before her stood the vast and unmatched ship, and she couldn't help but be a little awestruck at the idea of practicing medicine on it. She'd seen ships in the past—everyone had. Some even bigger and more complicated than this one. But a part of her couldn't help but realize that, for a little while at least, she would be home. She would belong here in a place that everyone belonged, and that, to her, was a beautiful thing. Especially since this was such a foreign concept to her.

She was invited in by a crew member, and told to wait in this small room for Dr. McCoy to come and show her to her station. Her mind was flying was questions—how long would she be out here, working on this mission? What would they possibly run into? Her curiosity was something she'd had since birth, and something her parents urged her to treasure.

A very small, almost unnoticeable smile were on her thin lips as she walked onto the U.S.S. Enterprise. She glanced around, taking everything in as she stood in the little room, waiting for her boss to retrieve her and immediately send her to work. The room itself was simple, but her mind seemed to wander again about what would be in the next room, and the room after that. Space exploration was something she had always been interested in. Naturally, she enlisted in Starfleet.

There she stood, in her blue uniform (she opted for the dress, for comfort reasons), a member of the medical team on the ship starting today. The wonder seemed to fade, however, when she realized what this ship had seen since its maiden voyage. Difficult battle, many lives lost…she had been reassured many times over that the battle that happened between this ship and the rogue Romulans would probably not happen again, not while she was on this ship. She was hesitant to believe her roommate, however, mostly because when she said it, she had significant blood alcohol levels.

Finally, he entered. She nodded politely at Dr. Leonard McCoy, who glanced at her, and gave her a gruff nod. "Well, welcome to the Enterprise," he said, sounding pushy and harsh as usual, but she remained unfazed by his outward appearance. "My name is Dr. McCoy, Chief Medical Officer. Nice seeing you again, Doctor," he said, not bothering to remember her last name. If she even had one.

McCoy led her out of the room and down into the sickbay. "It's pretty self-explanatory," he said, nodding to the various beds that sat around. "The medical supplies can be found under lock in that closet, and the pharmacy is in an adjoining room," he explained, waving his hand in the different directions he was talking about. "For the first…ooh, week, or so, your prescriptions will go through me as a precaution. After that week, a key will be given to you so you can access them yourself."

The woman continued to nod diligently, and he couldn't help but frown. "You don't talk much, do you?" he asked.

"I have simply not found any words to say yet, Dr. McCoy," she replied in a very cool voice. "If I should have an inquiry, I will vocalize it immediately. But as you said, this is all pretty self-explanatory," she responded, and she smiled.

She was tall, for a woman, though stood at an inch or two below McCoy. Her hair was sleek and black. For the purposes of the uniform, she had it pulled up in a high ponytail, with her straight bangs going across her diagonal-shaped eyebrows that were as foreign to McCoy as his eyebrows were to her. Her boots snaked up her thighs, another part of the uniform.

"Right," he said, sort of awkwardly, and he cleared his throat. "In an event of an emergency, this will obviously become a triage center. I don't believe that will happen any time soon, since this mission is so obviously simple." He didn't say what the mission was, so she didn't think she should have asked. "Like I said, if you have any questions, Dr. …err…" His cheeks went slightly red as he realized that he'd forgotten her name.

She smiled. "Adellia, sir. Dr. Adellia," she reminded him, gently. She stood with her hands behind her back as she looked up at him.

"Mmhm, Dr. Adellia. Sorry, it's been a busy few days since our little interview."

"No need to apologize," Adellia responded, and she shrugged a bit. "You obviously did not mean to forget my name, and I doubt very much you will be the last. You certainly were not the first."

"Yeah, well, I mean, you're my new doctor…anyway. If you need help finding anything, then feel free to ask your colleagues, Dr. Martinez or Dr. Willington, they should be around here somewhere…or any of the others."

"A question has arose," Adellia said suddenly. She turned to him, looking attentive and obedient, as if she was a brand new cadet. "If I were to need a prescription to be written, where may I find you? I assume you have some sort of pager system set up?"

"Oh!" he said, and he nodded towards a machine. "This will help you locate me throughout the ship. All you have to do is request where I am, and it will tell you." He nodded to it. "We have three of these in the sickbay, one in each hospital area, and one in the pharmacy." He paused, looking back over to her. She seemed to be almost staring at him, as if she was trying to memorize what he was saying. "More often than not, I'll be on the bridge or here, however."

"Excellent. Thank you for answering my question," she said, and she looked around, as if trying to think of another question. When she could think of no more, she turned back to look up at him. "I'd also like to thank you for taking the time to show me around, and for this opportunity to work on such a ship."

McCoy smiled, a little. "Welcome. You were my best applicant," he mumbled, and he moved on. "Alright, well…good look, and welcome aboard."

Adellia watched him walk off, and she couldn't help but smile just a little bit like she was before. This was her first job outside of school, and only her second time to venture out into space. Practicing medicine in space just sort of felt like her calling. She turned around and began to explore the supply closet, but put off introducing herself to the nurses just yet. She wasn't sure they would be excited in meeting her, after all.

McCoy found himself heading down to the bridge, where he intended to stay a lot of the time, unless they happened to run into some horrible amount of trouble. He walked in, nodding at Uhura politely before seeing Spock. He thought back to Adellia, who was also "pointy-eared", as he often referred to them. But even she was more different than Spock. Something was still just a little off.

He walked to the chair, and cleared his throat. Spock looked up, curious. "Have you seen Jim?" he asked Spock, glancing out the window.

"The last I saw of him, he excused himself to his sleeping quarters," his smooth reply came. "May I help you with something in his place?"

"No, no…I was going to…well." He paused. He didn't really want to tell Spock that he was going to gossip about their newest Vulcan, and how she had single-handedly taken the "weird" cake from Spock. "There's no telling what I would be interrupting in his sleeping quarters."

The two of them shared a knowing glance.


	2. Chapter 2

**((A/N hey! thanks for all those people who are following the story and added it to their favorites, it's quite appreciated! enjoy, yall c: ooh, i don't own star trek. i couldn't handle that kind of power. but adie i can handle, so.))**

The following day, Adellia found herself in the supply closet, looking through some boxes to try and find a certain plasma material for a wound. There was a minor but quite sudden accident in the control room, and about ten people were mildly wounded as a result. She frowned, leafing through alcohol pads, and getting a bit frustrated. Everyone was busy with the most severe of patients, and were therefore too busy to help her look for the plasma.

She felt a hand on her shoulder, and she whipped around to see Dr. McCoy. "Wrong side of the closet," he said with a small chuckle, and he nodded up to the top left corner. "Up there, next to the gloves. For Johnston, right? Fellow with the busted elbow?" he asked, and she nodded quickly. "Yep, right up there."

"Thank you, Doctor," she said, and matched his smile before reaching up to try and get it.

He snatched it before she could, and he looked at her. "Y'know, if you need something, you could've just asked. Would have saved poor Johnston some drops of blood." He handed it to her, and she apologized and thanked him. He wondered when she would ever come out of that Vulcan shell of hers.

"Ooh, when you're finished patching him up, I want you to x-ray Commander Spock's hand. It looks like it may be broken. The scanner is sitting next to his bed, just charge it up," McCoy added as he walked out of the supply closet, and he went off to try and get a man called Scotty to accept some antibiotics.

After working with Cadet Johnston, Adellia walked nervously over to Spock. She smiled but said nothing…after all, what would she have said? Small talk about his hand? She charged up the little x-ray device, setting it up to x-ray through someone who had quite a bit of copper in them like he did. Silence came between the two of them, though the two of them were trying to come up with something to say.

Spock was the first one who spoke. "I do not hope I am broaching a personal subject, but are you from Vulcan?" he asked, cautiously. He didn't enjoy bringing his planet, but perhaps a connection with someone who had also lost their home would help himself out. Or that's what Nyota had suggested.

"No, sir," she responded, smiling. "Not really. I was born there and lived there for a little under a year afterwards. My mother and father then moved back to my father's home, on Earth," Adellia said with a tiny nod, and she finally got it on the right settings. "Hold your hand still, please, Commander. And don't worry…the subject is not personal at all."

Spock held his hand up for her to x-ray, but he continued to speak. "You were raised on Earth?" he asked, looking up at her. He wondered if she endured the same kind of teasing he did, or suffered the distance between her and her father like he did with he and his mother.

Adellia concentrated on the x-ray. A bluish light from the small machine hit her face when it was activated, and she saw his hand. "I was raised on Earth, yes, sir. In a city called Chicago, Illinois, in the United States of America." She pressed a button, and his x-ray was saved to the device. She took a couple more scans from different angles, before she shut off the machine.

"It appears as if you may have a small fracture in your ring finger, sir," she said, and she wrote down on his chart quickly what she'd found, before syncing the x-ray machine with his chart. The computerized chart began to download the different scans. "I'll need to put a brace on your finger, but it shouldn't take long to heal. Do you feel any pain?"

"No, no pain whatsoever," he replied, and nodded to her as she went to get a small brace for his finger. His mind wandered as she went to search in the supply closet once more. She seemed quiet…a bit reserved. Especially for somebody who hadn't been raised in an environment that asked for little to no emotion. He wasn't entirely sure what to make of her just yet.

Spock had been looking forward to perhaps having some sort of friendship with her based on their shared culture, but she lacked everything he had. Then again, the statement could have easily been split.

Meanwhile, in the supply closet, the hunt was once again on. She was on her tip-toes, looking for the logical place for the small braces. She stopped looking for a moment, wondering if she should go ahead and ask. Adellia frowned, and came to the conclusion that maybe asking wouldn't be that big of a deal. She turned around, walked out, and promptly ran right into Dr. McCoy.

He let out an oomph, and he looked at her with a small smirk. "Couldn't find something?"

"No, sir." His smirk was mirrored on her lips.

"And you were coming to ask, right?"

"Affirmative."

"Good. What d'you need, Dr. Adellia?" he asked, and when she answered, he led her back into the supply closet. He turned on the light, and felt up on the top shelf, before finally finding a small brace. "There you are. Is Spock's hand okay?"

"His finger is somewhat fractured, but the injury is very minor. Should I assume everything I will need will be on the top shelf, and that you will retrieve it for me?" Adellia asked with a small laugh, and she took the little brace.

"Might save us some time, yeah," he responded with his own laugh. The two of them stood there awkwardly for a moment when there was a lurch in the ship. McCoy and Adellia stumbled a bit, bracing themselves with the wall.

Captain Kirk called Spock to the bridge. McCoy followed, with Adellia bringing up the rear, the brace, gauze, and medical tape in hand.

"Looks like a small Romulan ship, just attacked us out of the blue. Their weapons won't do any critical damage, but—" There was another lurch, and Sulu immediately reported the small damage. "But I'd like to know why they're even attacking us to begin with!"

"You do not think this has something to do with Nero, do you?" Spock asked, as Adellia worked around him, trying to fix his hand with her own shaking ones. He seemed indifferent to her actions to fix his finger. "It would be highly unlikely for them to know of the events that took place with Nero."

"Either that or they woke up on the ugly side of the bed. Get a transmission going, please," Kirk asked, and at once they began to work on that. He watched Adellia for a moment before turning back to McCoy. "Don't worry, not too many beds will need to be taken by this. If we can—"

"Jim," McCoy said, and he nodded to the screen.

There on the screen was a Romulan man, scowling at them. "Did you think the events of the future will have been lost on every Romulan?" he asked Kirk.

Jim sighed, and sat down, looking up at the screen. "We mean you no harm. If you stop attacking us, we can talk over this peacefully, instead of making rash actions—"

"I wouldn't talk to the murderer of my people if my life depended on it!"

"Why do I keep getting interrupted?" Jim mused, and he sighed. "Your life might depend on it if you continue to attack our ship like this. Like I said, we can…" he blinked, seeing the screen disappear.

"The transmition has been canceled," Sulu said with a nervous look.

"That's fine, he obviously wasn't interested in the end of any of my sentences," Jim said with a small roll of his eyes. "Is his ship coming towards us?" he asked, looking vaguely amused. When Sulu confirmed, Jim sighed. "Well, assist him in his suicide…"

When their weapons hit the Romulan ship, it almost immediately exploded. Adellia backed from Spock's hand in time to see the shards of ship sit in space, and she looked back up to Spock. "Thank you," he said, quietly, and she nodded in response, pulling away from him to assist in the sickbay.

Jim sighed, and he looked up to Spock. "Let's hope that was the only trouble we'll run into with him again."

"Something tells me it will not be," Spock replied flatly.


	3. Chapter 3

**((A/N hey yall! thanks for all the great reviews c: loving it. i don't own star trek, or anything else but adie. keep the reviews coming! i love to hear your thoughts on it, really c: ))**

Adellia found herself taking good care of a few crewmembers hurt in the small Romulan attack the day before. Not too many were severely injured from the attack, since it was such a quick strike to take it down, but there had been a couple of jolts here and there with people. Most of the ship seemed to go through it without many people caring, but for those select few, all this meant was possibly a few hours off.

Captain Kirk had made a small announcement to the ship explaining what had happened, and the fact that their mission had not changed in the least. In Kirk's words, the mission was to "find this planet, and make sure they're doing a'okay after a hard war, because that's just the kind of people we are", followed by one of his award-winning smiles.

She filled up a vial with some preliminary antibiotics, and stuffed it into a hypospray expertly. She walked up to one of the maintenance officers, smiling. "Good evening, my name is Dr. Adellia. Since you have wounded your leg, I've decided to give you a small dose of some broad-spectrum antibiotics in order to avoid infection." Without saying a word she put the device to his neck, and he let out a yelp as the medicine was transferred through his skin.

Adellia smiled, set down to hypospray, and began to chart it when she felt a hand on her shoulder. "Surprisingly enough, I will not be needing a thing from the supply closet," she said without even turning around. When she did, she was face-to-face with Dr. McCoy, who was chuckling to himself. She was surprised to see him looking a little sheepish as he stood in front of her, but she didn't show any surprise in her expression just yet.

"Yeah, well, just wanted to make sure. I know you're really good at asking for help…" he said, and he nodded over to the operation room. "I was wondering if you'd help me out with something, Dr. Adellia."

Adellia blinked. "I am a medical doctor specializing in intesive care, I am not qualified to do surgery…"

"Trust me, Adie," he said, and he nodded over to the room. When the two of them were in there, he shut the door, and sat down on the table. "I needed a doctor to take a look at me." Immediately, she noticed he was limping. "I think I may have twisted it when we got bumped that second time. And I know you don't talk much, so I trust you won't mention this." He glanced up at her, waiting for her honest answer.

"Of course not, sir," Adellia said with a small chuckle, at his pride. "I understand that as Chief Medical Officer, you need to be viewed with respect at your strength, especially when the sickbay turns into an emergency room—"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have everything you need," he said, and he nodded over to the table. In place of surgical tools was another hypospray (filled with what Adellia guessed was steroids, in case his ankle was inflamed), an x-ray device, and a good old reliable Ace bandage. "Just get to looking, and if anyone knocks and asks, just say you're with a patient."

"Understood," Adellia said with a small smile, and she looked over his ankle, feeling it for any sort of signs. He winced as she hit a spot, and she attempted to turn his foot to the left and right. Adellia was vaguely reminded of the awkward silence between she and Commander Spock, so she thought she ought to actually speak up and start a conversation.

"I assume by your accent you were raised in the Southern portion of the United States?"

"That's right, yeah. Graduated from U of Mississippi. Born and raised," he said, proudly. "Based on your lack of accent, you were raised on Vulcan. Weren't you?"

"That would be incorrect—ooh, sorry," she said, as she twisted perhaps too much for him. He looked up and glared at her apologetic smile. "I was raised in Chicago, mostly with my father," Adellia continued, surprised she was still on her heritage with the people on this ship. She guessed heritage was always a fun topic when having an inter-species conversation, but she was just a typical hybrid. She glanced up to him, smiling softly. "But my mother was Vulcan, and I was born there."

"Was?" he commented before thinking about what exactly he was saying. When it struck him, he cleared his throat. "Err, sorry about…that…"

"It's nothing to be sorry about, Dr. McCoy," she said, gently and patiently. "She was Vulcan. She was living there when Nero got a hold of the planet, and destroyed it." She seemed very concentrated on his foot, now, and she seemed to be redoing procedures she'd already done.

"I'm sorry to hear that, Adie," McCoy said, gently. He didn't entirely see the need in corrected her repeating procedures…he'd gone and get thinking about it, why add on more stress on top of it? He decided to switch to a (hopefully) happier subject. "What about your dad? What's he up to?"

"He is practicing medicine in Chicago, at the moment. He's the Head of Cardiology at Chicago's Northwestern Memorial Hospital," she mumbled, with a somewhat bemused expression. That turned into a half-smile.

"Small world. I did my residency there," he said with a small laugh. "What's that smile for? Anything to do with my right foot?"

"It appears to be sprained a little. The smile is for…well, no one's really asked much of me. Between you and Commander Spock asking about what my life has been like, it's…this is a foreign conversation to be having, for me," Adellia said, and then turned up to him. "And I've never been given a nickname before, either."

"I think Adie fits you well enough. And why wouldn't people ask questions? It must have been an adventure, growing up on Earth and being all…y'know. Different from most people," he said, awkward. He had to admit, this conversation was not going the way he had intended for it to go. Why would her growing up in a place where she looked different be an "adventure"? He rolled his eyes, and watched her grab the bandage. "Give me the shot, it'll cool the ankle down first and then the bandage will help it from getting too awful big."

"Yes, doctor," Adellia mumbled, and she gave him the shot quickly. "Growing up on Earth, and looking the way I do, was indeed something of an adventure. Whether or not it was a positive adventure is a matter of opinion."

"What's your opinion?"

Adellia looked up at him, perhaps a little pointedly, and she just began to wrap his ankle. That was as far as she would allow him to go, or anyone. No one really _needed_ to know what her childhood was like, after all. She knew Dr. McCoy to be somewhat of a curious fellow, but she wasn't going to give this up just yet. When finally she was finished, she stood back, and a tiny grin grew on her thin lips. She reached a pale hand to push back some of her dark hair, and she sighed. "All done."

"Thanks, Adie. And, err…your lips sealed?"

"More than sealed, I promise," she responded, and "zipped" her lips up, nodding. She turned around to leave only to feel a gigantic lurch from the ship. She fell down onto her back, and was helped up by a somewhat startled McCoy. The nurses and other doctors looked around curiously, some of them scared, and some of them rolling their eyes.

"Not again…" he said, gruffly. McCoy was one of those rolling his eyes. "Page me if things get too hairy down here, I'm going to see what's going on. I'll page you if we might have to set up the extra beds," he said, and he ran off, before giving official orders to the second in command, Dr. Willington.

McCoy ran down to the bride quickly, coming up behind Spock and Kirk. Ahead of them was a nice-sized Romulan Warbird, attacking the ship. "My God, man! What the hell do they want now?" he exclaimed while Kirk mumbled orders to Sulu and Chekov, which were being carried out with the sort of speed that surprised McCoy.

After a few moments of battle, Sulu cried out that they only had fifty percent power left. McCoy was about to suggest pulling back, for the sake of the ship, when his pager rang. He put his ear to it, and heard Adellia's panicked by cool voice on the other side moving a million miles an hour. "Calm down, talk slower!" he yelled.

"I am sorry, but Dr. Willington has sustained a fatal injury to his head thanks to the latest of attacks, and Dr. Martinez is knocked unconscious! I require your assistance!" she yelled right back, in her own soft way.

"Congratulations, Dr. Adellia, you have now inherited Willington's position. I'll be up there soon."

Adellia hung up and looked behind her. Nurses were bringing in people from the third deck, who were bloodied up, unconscious, or dead from the shock. She took in a deep breath, forced herself to control her emotions, and dug into the patients with a very distant look in her eyes.

----

What felt like a century later, Kirk had decided to dock in the nearest station for repairs. The Warbird decided that they had perhaps done their damage, and made their point. Adellia walked off the ship, looking down, and shaking her head. She headed down a corridor, all of the deaths going over in her head. She'd been through the training, both in Starfleet Academy and in medical school, but nothing compared to actually being through a battle like that with people dying without any sort of warning. Young people, who had so much more time on their hands. Just like her.

She stopped, and turned over to the dorm she was staying in. A few nurses came in after her, as well as a wounded but conscious Dr. Martinez. Adellia sat down on her bed and stared forward, the distant look still in her eyes. She felt a hand on her shoulder, and she turned around, seeing Dr. McCoy.

"Sir," she said stiffly. "I hope I acted with professionalism and made the correct calls—"

"Cut it with that bullshit, you did the best anyone could in that situation. We just got the sour end of the stick in that one, okay?" he interrupted her, harshly. His expression softened as hers did not, however. "If you let this beat you up, the next time, you'll freeze. And then I will be pissed off with you."

"I will not allow that to happen, do not worry," she mumbled. He squeezed her shoulder, and as he was taking his hand away, she took his hand for just a moment. It was just a small gesture to say that she was not being closed off with him. Adellia continued to stare forward, however, and he finally left in order to council Kirk in the doubt he was probably feeling.


	4. Chapter 4

**((A/N hallo thar c: i own nothing but adie, really.))**

The next day, Adellia woke up in the dorms. The memories from the day before filled her head before she could stop them, and she tried to close her eyes once more. That seemed to make it worse, so she opened them back up, and stared at the ceiling for a moment. Adellia soaked in the calm moment, when one of the nurses tripped on something, fell, as cursed loudly. Adellia rolled her eyes, and finally rose up from her bed, giving up on finding peace and quiet.

In retrospect, the day before shouldn't have been terrible. People lose their lives all the time, after all, right? People get hurt in the line of duty, isn't that why she had the job she had? But Adellia had such a clear idea about what the job would be about…it should have been about curing colds, and patching up little wounds, not trying to jump start their heart thanks to a horrible head injury. It just felt like the universe should have been more peaceful.

She looked around, seeing a couple of lucky nurses still snoozing. She glanced down to her bedside table, seeing a small, scribbled note. It looked as if it had been written in a hurry, and the handwriting was obviously a doctor's—it was barely legible. She picked it up, looking a little frustrated that she had been hailed already. It read:

_Adie,_

_Meet me in the medical bay so I can instruct you on your duties as temporary Lieutenant while Dr. Martinez is in recovery._

_Dr. McCoy_

After deciphering his awful handwriting, she rose, and moved to get dressed in her proper uniform. On her way down the hall, she pulled her sleek black hair up into a ponytail holder, her bangs hanging down easily enough. She walked into the sickbay, and nodded respectfully to those who worked here full time before finally finding McCoy.

"Dr. McCoy," she said, and she smiled politely as she approached him. When he did see her, things seemed to be set into place just that much better. "I apologize if I arrived late."

McCoy looked up to her, and he looked back down to the chart. He had been somewhat worried about how she took all of those losses, but had a feeling she would bounce back a lot easier than most would. She seemed to have some thick skin about her. He ran a hand through his dark hair, gathering his thoughts, before he finally looked back up to her.

"You're right on time. I let you get your sleep…you seemed pretty beat up about what happened, thought you'd like some extra shut-eye." He blinked when she winced a little bit, and he couldn't help but wonder if she didn't want to think about her "emotional slip-up". "Okay, um…basically, your duties are identical to the ones you had before, only instead of answering to Dr. Martinez, you will answer to me directly."

Adellia chuckled to herself, and McCoy raised his eyebrow right at her. "I apologize, Dr. McCoy. I had already assumed those were my duties." She paused. "Is that all, or did you call me up here to simply remind me?" she teased.

McCoy smirked in return, but the question seemed to be on both of their minds: Why /did/ he decide to call her up there for something like this? As if answering the question she was stewing over, he handed her a chart. "Bed thirty-four will require some broad spectrum anti-biotics. Thanks."

Adellia nodded gently, looking a bit lamb-like as she stood there, watching him walk away for a moment. A part of her wondered if he wanted to just see her…but why would somebody really want to just see her? Were they becoming…friends?

----

A week had passed since the Enterprise was docked for some repairs. Most crew members were wandering around, bored, since a lot of them had jobs specifically on the ship. While that wasn't exactly true for Dr. McCoy and Adellia, there wasn't a lot of people to treat when all they did was relax and laze around. Neither one of them seemed to be excited about sitting around and having all of this time to actually sink, and picked that up about one another easily.

The two of them sat in a lounge area, McCoy sipping some coffee and Adellia enjoying a glass of water. They'd been spending some time with each other, if only because there was nothing better to do. McCoy had noticed how much she'd come out of her little shell, and beneath that shell was a relatively normal woman. Granted, her ears were still pointy and he was sure her blood was still greener than his, but he had begun to look past her physical appearance and realize that she was not your typical Vulcan, or human. He felt as if he'd met someone truly different on this ship.

"I wonder when we'll be leaving. Have you heard anything about the repairs?" asked Adellia, in her light, airy sort of voice.

"They're saying that they're almost done, but they said that yesterday…that ship hit us in some pretty vital areas," he said with a small shrug. "They have other ships looking out for the rogue ship, but apparently they're nowhere to be seen anymore. Dunno where they could have gone…hopefully they'll go stir up trouble in some other galaxy," he said with a small shrug, and he sipped his coffee.

"Hopefully. But not probable," Adellia said with a small smile, and she leaned back, sighing to herself. "I never thought I'd miss flying around as much as I do. Perhaps I just enjoy actually having something to do, but…I've found that I rather like being out here in space."

McCoy let out a small 'tcht'. "I could take it or leave it." And he left his love/hate relationship with space at that. "But I agree, I have been a bit bored. Of course I don't wish for people to get too sick, but is a cold too much to ask for?" He offered her a little smirk on the corner of his mouth, showing how truly serious he was.

The two of them chuckled, and Adellia nodded once more. "I have to agree. But we should be back soon, shouldn't we?"

Before McCoy could answer, a woman walked up to them, and addressed Adellia. "Dr. McCoy, Commander Spock has requested your attention in the sickbay," she said, and left the two of them.

Both McCoy and Adellia exchanged curious glances, and he nodded over to the door, inviting her to come with him. When finally they arrived, Spock was standing next to a bed, and he nodded respectfully to them. "I hope I did not insinuate that I required the entire medical team." He offered a smile. "I was hoping you could look at my finger, and determine whether or not this brace is entirely necessary anymore."

"I'll leave you two," Adellia said politely, and she walked out of the room to go rejoin her glass of water.

McCoy looked down at his finger. "How long have you had this on here, though?" he asked, and began to dig around for some of the necessary tools, but there didn't seem to be any on hand. He rolled his eyes. Didn't anybody know how to organize here, really? In his huff he forgot he'd asked Spock a question, so he tuned into the man.

"Roughly five days. Dr. Adellia stated the fracture wasn't entirely too serious, so I was hoping to have this removed. It is frustrating, when I'm working, to have this holding me back," Spock replied, respectively. "But I do understand if it is necessary."

"Let me take a look at it, hm? Then we'll decide if you have to suffer any longer." He disappeared for a moment before he returned, and began to adjust the x-ray device. "Do you have any pain?" he asked, trying to get it to the precise levels needed for Spock.

"No pain to speak of, no," he said, and he glanced curiously at the door. "I have noticed you've spent a great deal of time with Dr. Adellia as of late."

McCoy looked up from the x-ray. "Yeah? And your point is?"

"I was just commenting on the time you have spent with her, I had no specific point. She has certainly opened up to you, hasn't she?" he continued to comment. "It is surprising, given your attitude towards me—"

"Woah, now. I never said I didn't like Vulcans," he said, and he frowned up at Spock. "There's a gap, is all. I can't relate to your kind, mostly. Besides, what does that have to do with anything?" he demanded, and his voice seemed to deepen a little defensively.

"I was merely observing you general attitude towards me. I did not mean to insinuate you are intolerant of Vulcans."

"Well, _obviously_ I'm not, or else I would have never hired her. Or looked at your finger. Now will you hold still so I can see, or are we going to keep blabbering on about what you 'observe'?"

"Proceed."

McCoy rolled his eyes pointedly and bent down to put the x-ray device over his finger. He adjusted it a bit, looking through the cast, frowning. "Looks like you'll be okay to have it removed…try not to bend it too much within the next two days…" he said, and he turned the x-ray off. But he couldn't shake off what Spock had said. "Besides, is there something wrong with me spending time with her? She's got a good head on her shoulders, a rarity on this damn ship."

He went into the drawer to retrieve some scissors, while Spock responded. "Nothing wrong whatsoever. Like I stated earlier, I was simply commenting on it." He paused. "You are the one getting defensive."

"Who's getting defensive! My God, man, what is going through that Vulcan mind of yours?" he asked, and hurriedly cut off the cast, taking the brace and tossing them both in the garbage.

Spock went to respond, when an announcement had been made by Kirk for everybody to report to his or her stations back on the ship. Adellia stood in the sickbay, looking through things and making sure everything was in tact, when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up, seeing McCoy.

"Everything in order?" he teased, and he rolled his eyes with an incredulous little smile. Ooh, well, she knew how to organize. Thank goodness, too.

"Yes, everything is in order, thank you very much. I'm not entirely sure how it managed to stay this way before I was hired onto this ship, the way you and Dr. Martinez throw things about…"

"I'll have you know, Adie, that we kept things in perfect shape. Or, at least, somebody did," he said, and the two of them chuckled a little bit. "But now that I have you, I don't have to worry about keeping things in order anymore, do I?"

Adellia stood up straight. "I suppose not, but what would happen if something were to happen to me?" she asked, her usual smile morphing into a small smirk, now. Which was a tad unusual, for her.

He met her smirk with his own. "I'll make sure nothing ever happens to you." He blinked. "For the sake of keeping this sickbay organized, anyway." He cleared his throat, and looked away. The silence between them was a bit uncomfortable, until Kirk came over the ship, thank goodness.

"Good afternoon, this is Captain Kirk. Welcome back to the U.S.S. Enterprise. We've received a distress call from Tellar, and have been assigned to assess the damage. From the sound of the transmition, it appears to be a health scare, so I would like those at the sickbay to ready as many beds as we can offer, if it is necessary. Thank you for your attention, Kirk out."

Adellia looked over to McCoy, and she smiled. "If you'd like to get more information from Captain Kirk, I believe I can handle getting ready the sickbay," she said, politely. Somehow she just knew he would end up wanting to speak to his good friend.

"Thanks. If you need any help…"

"Like I said, Dr. McCoy, I believe we will be okay up here," Adellia said, and she smirked before turning around to ready the nearest bed.

McCoy blinked, and frowned. "I think it's only fair that you get to start calling me Bones, now. I mean, I've been calling you Adie for a good while, haven't I?" he said, and he walked off towards the bridge, where he would be digging for more information.

Adellia watched him go off, and she nodded. Bones it was, then.


	5. Chapter 5

**((A/N hallo all! i own none of this but adie, but i wish i did. i mean, don't we all? anywho, reviews are still appreciated, of course. thanks for reading!))**

"Approaching Tellar. I'll drop out of warp in three…two…one…"

Sulu pulled back, and the ship stood hovering over the planet. They'd been sent to Tellar to assess for any damage they could possibly help with. According to the transmition received from Ambassador Gral, there appeared to be a serious health risk they could possibly help with. As much as Kirk wanted to go after that rogue ship, this would unfortunately have to do.

He'd put up quite an argument about it, too. It was Spock that had to take him down a level or two as he argued with Starfleet Command about this mission. Of course, it wasn't as if Kirk wasn't worried about the billions of Tellarites…he'd just much rather go after that rogue Romulan who had dared to tangle with the Enterprise. He did have a reputation to uphold, after all.

Kirk leaned forward, frowning. "Uhura, inform them of our arrival. I'll have Dr. McCoy, Spock, and myself beam down and speak with the leaders, to assess the situation. Notify Scotty, please, Chekov."

"Aye, captain," the blonde-hair young man said, and he smiled before contacting Spock.

"Sir, there appears to be no response from…anyone," Uhura said, and she looked back over to Kirk, awaiting her next move.

Kirk frowned. "Is the communication blocked?" he asked, memories of that drill resurfacing, and he paled a little bit in his face. He didn't relish dealing with that again.

"No, sir. Communication is enabled, but…no one's picking up," she replied, and continued to try and get a hold of someone. "Enterprise to Ambassador Gral, come in Ambassador…" she said, into her microphone, and she sighed. No response but the sound of static in her ear.

"Captain, ve're being helmed from ze nearby planetoid Babel," Chekov announced, and Kirk nodded for him to please connect them. He looked up, and waited, until finally he saw the snouted ambassador.

Before them stood Ambassador Gral, looking panicked. He even looked short through the transmition, and he had a very long, graying beard growing from his chin. His nose was snout-like, and his face was wrinkled and weathered.

"Captain Kirk," he began, glancing behind him as if to check no one was behind. The Tellarite looked scared beyond believe, and like he had much more on his plate than he had ever wanted in his career. "It was Romulans," he said, breathlessly, but with a slight dignified air anyway. "They dropped some sort of substance, it killed almost every one of us. We began evacuations as soon as we possibly could."

Kirk blinked, frowning. He was thinking about this situation. Bones took this opportunity to speak up. "What happened? What…happened?" he asked, not finding the right words. Another civilization, just disappeared. No one on the bridge could really believe it. Bones had glanced up at Spock, to try and read his reaction, but aside from a small wince there was no response to be found in his eyes.

"We all dropped dead, that's what happened!" he said, in response. He calmed himself down, stroking his beard nervously. "We paused on Babel to regain some footing…we evacuated all we could…Once we get a handle on things, we intend to continue on to a Starfleet base, and regroup there."

Kirk glanced down the Sulu, who was searching for any other ships in the area. "Will you be alright without an accompaniment to Starfleet?" he asked Gral, with a very concentrated look in his eye. The ship had to be near, and their latest genocide would provide for some clues, hopefully. He tensed, going over the decision in his head with a slightly worried look in his eyes.

"Well, the accompaniment would be appreciate, but not necessary if there happen to be other pressing matters," Gral replied, looking a little offended that he'd suggested they not help. He even scoffed a little down at the young captain.

"We will be accompanying you, for safety's sake, to the nearest—"

"If you're positive you can make it," Kirk interrupted Spock, who now looked quite offended himself. "We will be making our way to learn more information about and track down the Romulan ship responsible for this genocide." At the look of pure disgust, Kirk decided to add: "I assume you'd rather find your murderer than have us bring you back to the base?"

Gral frowned, but looked conflicted. "We will manage."

"I'll alert the U.S.S. Hood to meet you halfway. Good luck," Kirk said, and he cut off the transmition. "Spock, Bones, we're going to beam down there and see what exactly those scum did to this entire planet. Bring any fancy medical tool you can, Bones. We might need it," he said, and he glanced down to Chekov. "Start running scans over the planet, cover every base you can. We need to know what to prepare for."

"Aye, cap'n," Chekov replied once more, and hurriedly began to go to work, as if he was just beyond excited to be a part of this. And he obviously was.

Bones sighed with pure exasperation, and he turned around, heading to the elevator. He turned back to look at Kirk just as he went to step in, only to run right into someone. He looked back down, and saw Adellia adjusting her bangs, and she smiled softly up at him in that way that she did. He couldn't help but smile back.

"Excuse me, doctor. I just wanted to inform you that every bed available had been turned down," Adellia said, and she backed up so the both of them could come back down to the medical bay.

"I appreciate it, but it won't be necessary anymore. Apparently the entire planet has 'dropped dead', as their Ambassador put it." He shook his head, still just as blown away by that fact, but he forced himself to move on much like Spock had. He could've used a drink, though.

"Sir?" Adellia asked sharply, and her face immediately showed shock. Her memories flashed back to the genocide of Vulcan, and she didn't want to believe this was happening again. Her mind moved a million miles an hour as the two of them stepped from the elevator. "How is that medically possible, for an entire planet…approximately seven billion…"

"That's what we're going to find out," he said, and he led the two of them to the supply closet. He began to gather what he thought he might need to perform a limited autopsy, reaching up to the top shelves and packing up the belt he secured around his waist. He packed a tricorder, some masks, and anything that he knew would be needed.

"You're going down there?" she asked.

Bones blinked. He knew what he would see when he turned around. He would see her looking defensive, yet scared in her eyes, scared for his safety. And who could blame her? She'd lost her mother, in an almost identical situation. He'd be worried for her, too, if he were in her place. Especially since they'd become such good friends.

He turned around and sure enough, there she was, in the exact state he had described in his mind. She was normally so cheerful…he assumed at first it was her general positive attitude, but now he saw a glimpse of what she really was feeling inside. How quickly she went from happy to worried. Her studied her for a moment, finding this way too intimate for someone like him.

He sighed, and he put a hand on her shoulder. To the untrained eye, he would look impatient and perhaps patronizing. But to Adellia, she knew he was just a little uncomfortable, and he wanted very much to get his point across. "I will be okay," he assured her, and he smirked on one side of his mouth. "I'll be with Jim. Nothing bad every touches that kid."

She stared at him with that scared expression for a moment, before she seemed to relax a little bit at his sideways smirk. "You better," Adellia said, and she smirked, backing up away from him so he could get out of the supply closet.

"I'll be back," he said, and began towards the bridge.

"Wait," Adellia said, and she looked around. It was obvious she hadn't planned anything to say before she told him to wait, so she desperately searched for something. Her eyes danced around as she put her hands together behind her back, and she frowned as something finally came to mind. "Um…good luck."

Bones raised his eyebrow, and smirked, giving her a playful roll of his eyes. "Thanks, Adie."

----

"Sir," Chekov began, looking excited. "I have been scanning ze surface of Tellar, and ze radiation lewel is off ze charts. Zis is more radiation zan I have evwer seen…" he said, and Kirk bent over, checking the levels.

"Send for hazmat suits, three of them," he said, and looked up when Bones entered. "Come look at this!" he yelled, and nodded down towards the screen. "Can you tell us how long those suits will protect us through that kind of radiation levels?"

Bones frowned. "Well, the hazmat suits technically can't take those sort of levels, but there are ways to boost our immune systems. In total, I think we'd probably have some three minutes before our white blood cells would get down to a critical point. Spock would probably have longer; his body is a little stronger than ours. What are you thinking of doing down there? I thought we were going after the Romulans?"

"Negative, Bones. I wanna get a sample of what the hell killed all of them," he said, and he looked up with their suits arrived. He grabbed his, and began to pull it over his other clothes.

"Damnit, Jim, do you have any idea how dangerous that is?" he asked, looking concerned, as per usual when he was around his friend.

Kirk just sort of smirked, and he shrugged. "If you don't want to come, you don't have to." He zipped up his suit pointedly. As soon as he'd gotten his suit zipped, buckled and tied, the suit clung to him tight, and an invisible layer of protection was activated.

Bones and Spock did the same. "Lieutenant Uhura," Bones said, over the microphone. "Alert medical to ready three isolation beds, just in case our immune systems are overly compromised," he said, and he glanced over to Kirk. "I hope your luck will shine over all of us, boy, or we'll be dying from the common cold."

Kirk's response was a cheeky grin.

----

Nearly an hour later, Adellia sat in the medical bay, staring down at her lap. She'd just gotten done looking after Kirk, who had suffered an unfortunate blow from the radiation levels. He sat in the isolation room, sleeping for now, and she knew Spock was sitting at the helm.

"Y'know, you worry too much," Bones said, and he plopped down next to her, handing her some water, which she took and set down again. "I have a question."

"Yes, Dr. McCoy? Bones, sorry…" she mumbled, and she offered a fake, forced smile. Perhaps she did worry too much.

"Why Starfleet? You seem—and no offense meant, darlin'—but you seem frightened of your own shadow. You perform well under pressure, like any good doctor, but otherwise, you're the meekest of your kind I'm willing to bet." He sipped from his flask, finally getting that stiff drink he had been craving so.

Adellia looked forward. She appeared as though she was deciding between amusement and offense. After a moment she sort of chose somewhere in between, and she looked back over to him. "Because…well…I find on planets, people tend to be a group. Within their own race, of course. But from what I've seen, in space, it's…sort of a neutral territory. I know technically there are parts of space that are owned, but I don't mean politically neutral. All sorts of species exist in space."

"Lines are blurred on a ship like this, in Starfleet. There is no questioning of your heritage, culture, or blood, just your ability to perform admirably and successfully. That's all that's expected of people." She sipped from her water, for something to do. "Usually, anyway."

He nodded, allowing that to sink in for a little bit, before he smiled at her. "I can get behind that logic, I suppose."

"What about you?" she asked suddenly and even a little accusatory.

"Me?" Bones asked, and he smirked. "Had nothing left. My wife took everything but the feet I walk on in the divorce, and with nothing but a medical degree and free time, it seemed the…logical choice, as you would say." He shrugged, looking back over to her. "Guess it was sort of a last resort for both of us."

Adellia nodded, and she smiled. "Yes, I would have to agree with that statement." Her smile turned into a grin as she looked at him, and he smirked in response.


	6. Chapter 6

**((A/N hi yall c: i don't own anything but adellia. thanks for all the awesome reviews, by the way! more to come, believe me c: keep the reviews coming, i love them!))  
**

Jim Kirk sat in his chair, rolling his eyes a little bit as Adallia checked his temperature. She used a very small device, smaller than even a tricoder, and hovered it around him. She frowned, looking concentrated on reading some more stats, while Kirk glanced up at her and gave her a very skeptical look."You know, it was just a little bit of radiation…"

Kirk had been released from the medical bay once he was back to being as stable as he could have been, and immediately began to try and find where that ship went. Unfortunately, it had been all for nothing, as the ship seemed to just disappear into thin air.

"Had you caught the Andorian Flu, you probably would have perished within the hour," Adallia reminded him softly. Kirk noticed a pretty distinct difference between her and Bones' way of doing this…at least she was nice about it, right?

"Please hold still, Captain, I need to get a proper reading on your blood pressure," she said, softly. Uhura walked slowly into the room as she got a lock on it, and it slowly began to rise, along with his heart rate and temperature.

"Fascinating…" she said, softly, watching it go even higher.

Kirk frowned, pushed the little device away, and turned to Uhura who looked as if she had something on her mind. "Captain, I thought you might be interested in hearing this. I picked up a transmition from a Klingon ship a ways from here. They were discussing curious activity in the Gamma quadrant, out on the edge where most Federation ships have barely even been. That planet has been documented to have highly radioactive material growing naturally off the surface," she explained.

He nodded, and turned around. "Spock!" he yelled, and smirked. "Do me a favor, and have your scientists compare the radioactive material with those documented from that Gamma quadrant planet…what was it called again?"

"For now, the Federation has called it HPU-04," Uhura responded, and gleefully went to join Spock. Kirk was only glad Adellia wasn't prodding him with that device anymore as he watched the two of them walk off.

Adellia turned back to Kirk, looking a little nervous now. After all, he was the captain, and even though she did have the right to give him anything she felt prudent, he didn't seem very excited about being examined. She glanced up at him, taking in a deep breath. "I am sorry to bother you with this, but it is prudent I document all of your vital signs and give you one last dose of—"

She was interrupted when Bones came up behind Kirk, injecting his last rounds of anti-biotics and anti-virals without another word. "This one is afraid of the hypospray, you have to do it like you would an animal," he joked, and smirked, tucking the tool back into his belt.

Adellia chuckled, when Chekov spoke up. "Sir…we're getting a transmition in from the same Romulan ship as last time," he said, and Kirk nodded to allow the transmition.

The elderly Romulan appeared on screen, looking curiously down at all of them. He took them in for a moment before finally he spoke. "Hello, Captain Kirk. Long time no see," he said, and before Kirk could even begin a sentence, he interrupted him. "I'd like to introduce myself, formally. My name is Decius, and I am what people in your species would call a psychic."

The entire bridge was still save for Sulu gently attempting to ready any weapons or shields that would be needed. Adellia stared up at the man on their screen, knowing she probably should have left, but she couldn't find herself moving. Bones straightened up and puffed out his chest while Kirk listened, perfectly concentrated on what Decius would have to say.

"To most Romulans, Nero's death went unnoticed. Even Nero himself did not notice. But I saw everything. I saw everything that would happen with Nero, and the future of our planet. And it isn't pretty, Captain Kirk." He leaned forward, frowning down at the crew. "It did not go unnoticed to me. I knew why he was fighting…why he died. And as a psychic, it is my personal duty to use my information to my advantage."

"I saw many outcomes of the future, and each one of them had a different ending; they all ended with you failing us. You failed to make it out here in time. You had a prejudice against us, and allowed our race to fail. You even refused to help, in one instance, and a lesser captain was sent in your stead. They crash landed before arriving here."

"I can ensure you and your planet that you will not be harmed by that star. We're doing everything we can—"

"No, you are not! Nobody will be able to save our planet!" he yelled, suddenly, and took a moment to regain his calm exterior he began the conversation with. He leaned back in his steel chair, staring at Kirk. "Nobody. Many try. Nobody ever succeeds."

Something within Adellia forced her to open her mouth and say something comforting, but before she could get the rest of her first word out, Bones' hand rested on her wrist, stopping her. Decius didn't seem to notice, or care, because he continued his spiel.

"I feel Nero's pain. I feel his agony. So do the Vulcans…don't you?" he asked, his eyes going straight to Adellia for just a moment. Bones tensed and pulled her back, but Decius didn't seem to even notice that either. And even if he did notice it, he probably wouldn't care. "And now, so do the Tellarites. Nero's approach, while certainly extreme, was extremely correct. Nothing will be able to stop the demise of our race…so why should I allow those who continue to fail to exist?"

"You're using radiation to poison the Federation planets?" Kirk asked, his mind racing. He was asking so many questions: Why was he telling them all of this? Why did he bother when this star was supposed to explode in almost one hundred years? Was this man really a psychic, or a friend of Nero's?

"Not even the most simplest of species could have missed that, could they?" he said with a small smirk. "I stole radioactive earth from the little-known planetoid, knowing it would be enough to kill an entire civilization when placed on the correct points. Much simpler than Nero's drill, yet, much more effective, wouldn't you say?"

"I would be hesitant to label a horrendous genocide as 'effective'," said Spock, who had just stepped in. He glared up at Decius, standing right next to Kirk. Spock's face showed little to not emotion in it, besides the look of concentration, but he was clenching his fists. Adellia glanced over at him knowingly before she gazed back up to the screen, where the Romulan was chuckling to himself.

"So what's your plan, Dessy?" asked Kirk. "You go after another Federation planet, so we can stop you and kill you just like we did Nero?"

Decius smirked, and shook his head. "No, Captain Kirk. I plan on going after another Federation planet, until they're all destroyed, but I intend to kill you all first. I don't care if you get to watch at all."

The transmition ended suddenly, and Sulu sprung into action. "Sir, they've locked torpedos on us—"

"Put fifty percent of the shields in the front, and prepare to return fire!" Kirk yelled, and the ship was hit pretty hard on the starboard side.

Bones turned back down to Adellia. "Go down to the medical bay and prepare to receive as many as we can handle, get the nurses going and loading the hyposprays," he said, and looked as if he was going to continue, before rolling his eyes. "Ooh, you're not stupid, you know what to do. Go!" he yelled, and she ran off quickly, her hands shaking but her face stone cold with concentration.

----

The battle was long and rough for Adellia. There was casualties from a few decks, including a lot of engineering staff, and the number of nurses and doctors seemed to get fewer and fewer the more she moved. The morgue was full of too many bodies for Adellia to think about.

The more she thought about the death that happened as a result of the Romulans, the more she regretted joining Starfleet Academy. It just didn't seem to make any sense, dealing with all of this. She would have hoped that people would respect Starfleet and the Federation, or at least not want to bother with it. Adellia knew well that there were not pleasant beings out there, and that sometimes she would have to deal with them, but she didn't seem to think about people dying because of someone flying off the handle.

In all honestly, Adellia tried not to think about all of this at once. After all, in the heat of the moment, she had to keep her wits about her. But sometimes she made the mistake of stepping back and looking at the situation. She made this mistake now, after having one small moment of peace, until a patient began to crash. Her ears caught the sounds of nurses pleading for a doctor to come help, which of course she did, but she was still outside of herself.

She stood over the patient whose heart had stopped beating, and she used the small paddles to bring him back, hopefully. "Clear," she said, but her voice was all business; it was quite different from the usual soft, lamb-like voice she usually used. "Clear," she said one more time, and she shocked the man. There was nothing. The nurses exchanged glances, but Adellia continued on. "Clear!" she finally snapped. This went on for a minute, when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"He's dead, Adie," Bones said, and he sighed, looking up at the clock. "Time of death, oh-seven hundred hours. Come on, there's others we need to work on—"

There was a large explosion, and the power seemed to flicker off a bit. Everyone was knocked either against the wall or onto the ground. Bones and Adellia both took the latter route, and as soon as some of the backup lights turned on, she looked over and saw him limp on the ground. She moved faster than lightning, pressing her ear to his chest as soon as she got to him and heard a heartbeat.

Relieved, she looked up, attempting to be heard over the chaos. "Dr. McCoy has been knocked unconscious, Nurse Jenkins, transfer him to the fourth deck!" she yelled, her eyes going dark with worry. She couldn't freeze, though, she would not allow herself to. She had to concentrate, and try to forgot that this was Bones lying there, with who knew what kind of injury. "Make sure he has no other wounds other than the apparent one on his head, I'll be up in a moment to began to stitch his head."

The nurse looked down at her, and gasped. "Dr. Adellia, your leg…" she said, and she ushered another nurse over.

Adellia looked down, seeing a piece of glass stuck in her thigh. It was by no means a serious issue, despite the green blood dripping from it. Even though she stared at it, she didn't feel any sort of pain for it. Adellia almost wouldn't allow herself to, in this situation. "I will be fine, thank you. Please transfer Dr. McCoy," she said, and the nurse moved quickly with another nurse helping him out.

Adellia suddenly felt the pain, but it was nothing to stop her from tending to those worst off, and then Dr. McCoy. Then maybe she could have concentrate on why exactly she had to force herself to shut off when Bones got hurt.

----

Decius had decided that he'd left the Enterprise wounded beyond belief, and left her hanging in space with little to no weapons and damaged shields. The engineers and ship itself had begun on what repairs could be done in this situation, since warp speed was quite out of the question.

Adellia sat in Dr. McCoy's room as he lay down, still asleep. The injury to her leg was worse than she had behaved, but she knew she would definitely survive. He started to come to, and saw her hunched and slightly beaten up figure on the foot of his bed. He rolled his eyes at her, upset she was here and not in the medical bay, and sat up a little. "Are all of your patients taken care of, Adie?" he asked, frowning.

"Of course, sir," she replied, back in that quiet tone she usually used. Adellia sighed, and pushed back her bangs, staring down at the ground. "Your vital signs appear normal. You had a slight concussion, after being struck on the head. You will be able to continue going through duties, once you feel you would be up for it--"

"I don't give a rat's ass what happened to me, how's the ship?"

"She took some harsh damage. We're waiting for emergency help, but doing what we can for now," she replied, quickly and without hesitance. "I was able to close the wound in your head, and I apologize for the unfortunate bald spot."

He chuckled. "I was growing one anyway, believe me. How're you doing, though? How did you handle me being out of commission?"

"I sustained a minor injury, but otherwise I am fine. I did what I do best, Bones…I am trained for emergency situations, after all." A smile crossed her lips. "I know you wouldn't know it, looking at me."

"Ooh, I dunno. I think I'm finally beginning to see why you're such a strong doctor," Bones said, and he laid back down, closing his eyes. The two of them sat in strained and stressed silence for a little while longer before Adellia finally left his room. He wished he didn't see her limp, and she wished she didn't see him lying there. Needless to say, they were both unhappy.


	7. Chapter 7

**((A/N hallo! thanks for all the reviews and readers and all of all that jazz and stuff. i appreciate it c: anyone have any thoughts on bones and adie? or...anything? lemme know! i own none of this but adie. and that rude cadet.))**

That entire day was stressful for everybody, and it carried on flawlessly into the next day. Kirk and Spock bickered more than usual, or so was the rumor, and they'd lost two more people to severe internal injuries in the medical bay. The engineers were working harder than anyone deserved to, and while they were making admirable progress, the tense situation didn't miss anyone on the ship. Not even those in the medical bay who tried to pretend feelings were below them.

Thankfully, Adellia's leg had begun to heal without any complications, though she could have done without the serious medical attention from Bones. The attention was reciprocated, as she seemed to remind him quite a bit about his minor concussion. The two of them were oddly quiet around each other, and thanks to the stress weighing heavily on their shoulders, there were no more chuckles or sarcastic comments.

Adellia began to do her rounds, looking more tired than usual. She stopped in front of a particular engineer, whose head was bowed down, and began to write down his vitals when she noticed his blood seemed thicker. She frowned, and probed deeper, only to find that his blood-alcohol content was about .12. She looked up to him, frowning and looking very irritated that he had chosen _today_ to come in under the influence.

"Cadet, may I inquire as to why you have alcohol in your system?"

Bones, curious, lurked at the next bed, listening to this conversation. The cadet blinked, and he sighed. "Well, y'know, I got hit pretty bad last night. The sedatives you guys gave me—"

"You received sedatives?" Adellia asked, harshly.

"Well they didn't work, y'see, so I took matters into my own hands." He pulled out a flask, and she snatched it from him. She poured it into the garbage. The liquid was a light blue, and she knew precisely what it was. The cadet's eyes went wide as he reached for the flask, once it was empty, and he pulled it away from her. "Awww, come on, that was really hard to come by!"

"Perhaps that is because it is Romulan ale, which happens to be traded only illegally," she said, and she glared. Adellia was not in the mood for this. All she was in the mood for, really, was a relaxing afternoon in her sleeping quarters. She wanted to be away from the medical bay, away from the death that had happened here.

With a vaguely frustrated look, she glanced up at him. "I'm afraid I have to file a report against you, and when we return to Earth, you will be investigated—"

"Bullshit!" the cadet said, interrupting her. "You're just pissed because your kind can't consume alcohol," he continued, obviously irritated with her, and he assumed he couldn't get her angry, either. She was a Vulcan, after all.

"Sir, I will restrain you if necessary. The board will consider your report, and you will be allowed to make your case—"

"What is it like to not get drunk? Or feel love for a man? Or get pissed because you can't relate to anyone but your kind? Face it, pretty thing, you're clearly taking it out on me."

Bones had enough at that point. "Nurse Chapel, please restrain him chemically and physically. You better learn to watch your mouth when you're talking to a damn officer, do you understand, boy? You're lucky you're sick, really, or I swear to God…" he went off when he saw the glare from Adellia for him to please shut up.

After the man was restrained, Adellia went off into the supply closet, searching for some electrolytes for that cadet. That's what helped out with dehydration after alcohol, right? That and water…Adellia's tired eyes searched through the shelves, finding absolutely no clues as to where they could be found.

Bones followed, frowning curiously, but not angrily. "What was that look for? I was doing you a favor, shutting that ass up so you could continue on with your day…"

"I am perfectly capable with fighting my own battles, Dr. McCoy, and dealing with my own patients," Adellia said sharply, and turned on the light, angrily searching around but finding none. Was it that hard to find a bottle of Tang, really?

Bones rolled his eyes and handed her the little bottle of juice. But he didn't move out of her way. In fact, he shut the door. "What is it, Adie? I'm not stupid."

"I do not doubt your intelligence, but your instincts—"

"Adellia," he said, and he walked forward, putting his hands on her shoulders. She blinked up at him, and backed up, giving him a small look of disdain at his sudden concern. He let her go, but didn't move. "I want to know what he said that bothered you. My instincts about people are not usually wrong. I mean, my God, woman…I know I don't know you all that well, but…" he sighed.

She looked as if she didn't want to believe him. "'Your kind'."

Bones blinked. "My kind?"

"No, what he said. 'My kind'. Because I look Vulcan." Her voice was quiet, and flat. It lacked all of the usual pep it had, especially around him.

"You are Vulcan, though."

Adellia glared daggers. "That is what bothers me. How am I supposed to be expected to act like I was raised on Vulcan, just because I look like I probably was? How am I supposed to live up to the expectations people immediately put on me, and when I fail to act as stoic as they imagine, I come off as too different."

Bones sighed. This was something _he_ did not need right now. "It's alright to be different."

"That is very easy for you to say, you were raised among your peers," Adellia spat, all kinds of angry now. The stress of the casualties, the constant threat, and now this was finally bubbling over. "I was raised among humans, mostly, with the occasional other species added into the mix. I never belonged to either world—the humans, they assumed me to be like Spock. The Vulcans, they expect me to be completely human. I fit nobody's mold."

She looked like she wanted to shut herself up, but couldn't stop herself. "I studied for years about Vulcan culture, trying to at least pretend like perhaps I understood what it was like. But naturally, being raised on Earth, my natural tendencies were towards that of a human. Still, I struggled for my entire life, fighting to break into the Vulcan I knew I always was. But it never happened!" she snapped, and she frowned, looking disgusted with herself.

"I never learned to purge myself of all emotions, I never learned to meditate, I could not throw away the feelings that were driving me!" Adellia said shakily, walking forward to him. "I was a walking paradox, one side not allowing me to transfer to the other. And I've only just begun to realize that all of those humans must have been correct."

"Adie…"

"I belong nowhere!" she snapped, yelling in a whisper.

The two of them stood there for a moment before Bones sighed. "You belong here, though. With me." He knew this friendship—or whatever the hell this was—was very important to her. It had to have been her first deep friendship, and he didn't intend to let it break like this. He cared about her, in some ways, even if he wasn't sure what to say or how to act in a situation like this.

"Look, Adie, I could give two shits about what you are. So you bleed green. So you have pointier ears than me. That…shouldn't, matter." He smirked at his past with Spock, but he was beginning to understand that he wasn't frustrated with all Vulcans. Obviously not. Even if she was the weirdest thing he'd ever met, he didn't mind her at all. "And it doesn't to me. You are who you are."

Adellia looked like she was trying not to believe him now. She nodded, and leaned against the back of the wall, sighing to herself. "I am who I am and you don't mind me anyway," she stated, mostly to herself, but he nodded anyway. She stared forward, past him before she looked at him in the eye, nodding. She smiled a very small, hesitant smile, and took his hand, squeezing it a little bit.

"I knew something was special about you when I hired you," he said with a small laugh, holding her hand back until she let it go. "Now come on, Adie. Lots of patients to look after." He backed up, acting as if perhaps she didn't touch him with her brutal honesty. But truthfully, he knew how much that had to take—and that she was still dealing with the fact that he didn't run away from her.

Adellia was wondering what in the world was happening with them. They became fast friends, but they said in the Academy that becoming almost air-tight with the people you work with in a matter of weeks is very common, especially when the ship is under stress. She would have called this a stressful environment, certainly. It all sort of seemed unreal, the idea of her having a good friend like Bones. Someone who was willing to stand up for her, listen to her, and at least attempt to give coherent advice in return.

But then there was that small bugging thought in the back of her mind. She wondered what the two of them would be like…together. Honestly, though, this was the first time she'd thought this after her high school crush. After he denied her in the worst way. Bones was obviously a caring man, even if he was a little harsh and no-nonsense about it.

She looked up from the chart, eyeing him curiously. He caught her and smirked, watching her going back to stare at the chart studiously. The same thing was in the back of his mind, but of course the divorce was the second thing that cropped up. Could he handle something after getting burned that badly?

He put that silliness out of his mind and began to rub some burn paste on a woman's hand. They both had important things to think about, like this psycho Romulan, and the hundreds of wounds that he had to tend to. No, he didn't have _time_ for anything like that…absolutely not.


	8. Chapter 8

**((A/N hallo! ooooh, we're getting towards the end c: still loving the reviews, seriously. i don't own anything but adie. thanks for reading!))**

Adellia found herself sitting in the galley after a hard day and a half of work. Thankfully, things had taken a turn for the better for nearly everyone. There were no more casualties, and everybody seemed to be recovering well enough in the medical bay. More repairs were being made on the ship, and they were almost able to warp through space to the nearest Starfleet docking station, to complete their repairs. Morale had been lifted throughout the ship with this sudden turn for the better, but it still had a long way to go.

She was used to the constant attention required by this many patients. She had specialized in intensive care, after all, and those tend to be the patients that require so much attention. But there were a lot of them. And when she was in school, she did not remember being under constant threat of a Romulan psychic attack. Not to mention the people in medical school, and how they ignored her, compared to the staff she worked with now. She sort of missed not getting any attention, save for the occasional pat on the back, but even that wasn't necessary.

The worry about the Enterprise's future was in her eyes. She looked tired, and her skin was even paler than it usually was, giving her a little more of a greenish tint to her body. She slumped down, quite the opposite of her chipper exterior most people were used to. But the entire ship seemed to be like this…just so down, and beat, and tired of all of this. They weren't desperately troubled anymore, but the ship was definitely bummed out most of the time.

But then she thought of Bones, and his hard-as-nails exterior. He was truly strong, and didn't let anything like this touch him. Kirk and Spock seemed to be the exact same way. Adellia felt like she was lacking some sort of gene that helped her deal with this sort of situation, so instead of dealing, she just closed up and acted robotically, within her job and social situations (which were still thankfully rare). She couldn't remember the last few patients she'd handled, because she went through the process without thinking too much about it. Thankfully, no one seemed to notice all that much.

"Would you stop being so cheerful, Adie? You're pissing the rest of us off."

Adellia blinked, and saw him put a glass of water in front of her. She saw the man that brought the water, and smiled. "I'm trying to calm myself, Bones, but you know how cheerful everyone is being nowadays."

"Yeah, I know…spreads like a damn disease, doesn't it?"

She smiled, and nodded, thanking him softly for the water. Then the awkward set in between them, as soon as they remembered the previous day. Adellia began to think about what would happen when (if) all of this was over. Would they see each other on Earth, or would they just be seeing each other when the crew got a new assignment? And what about these awkward moments, would they be…solved, anytime soon? However they intended to do that…When Bones cleared his throat, she looked up and was surprised to have her question answered.

"When we get back on ground, sweet ground, I'm taking you out to one of my favorite places in San Francisco. I hate the city—I hate California—but I managed to find the finest barbecue joint the west could ever offer," Bones said with a small smirk. "You like barbecue?"

Adellia nodded, and shrugged. "I don't know that I've had barbecue as good as what you've described, but I am a fan, yes," she said, and she nodded. "That would be fun, I think. It will be nice to get a break from all of this…" she sighed, not finishing her sentence about what exactly she would want to get a break from, and she sort of shrugged again. She'd been shrugging a lot lately, it seemed.

Bones nodded. "Well, that break will come. But we got a saying back where I'm from…'What doesn't kill you, only makes your skin thicker'," he recited, and nodded knowingly. "And whatever happens, if it doesn't kill you, you'll end up being a bit stronger than you ever were before. Right?" he asked, expecting her to participate in this discussion instead of hanging around and looking miserable like she'd taken to doing this entire day and a half. It was a little disconcerting, seeing someone who used to be so cheerful do a complete one-eighty and look downtrodden and depressed. It kind of made him wonder how bad things really got, if they were chipping away at her chipper exterior.

"Right," she said, and she laughed. "You know, I'm willing to bet that I have received more advice from you than I have from anyone in my entire life," she said with a tiny smirk, and he smiled a little soft in return, for him. "Maybe one of these days, I'll have a nice piece of advice to give you," Adellia said, smirking.

"Maybe, Adie. Who knows?" he asked. He patted her shoulder, and got up to leave, heading back to the medical bay.

He had her on his mind for a little while. He thought about how she was being dragged down by this, and it really did kind of bother him. Bones assumed she would be able to handle anything, considering what she'd already been through. Was the stress of an impending attack weighing that heavily on her? He wondered what he could do to help, but short of relieving her from duty, he didn't see any sort of solution. It did hurt her to look so depressed, though. He didn't remember feeling this bad for someone in a long time.

----

A few days later, Adellia and Bones stood in the small lab, looking over some viral levels. They were in dock at the moment, and people were finishing the last of the repairs for the ship. Their ship was back to almost about ninety-percent, with only some malfunctioning of the thrusters to be concerned about, but even that was being fixed. It looked as if launch would be happening soon enough, which they were both dreading and excited for. It meant danger, but it also meant getting the danger over with.

"Antibodies are high, and she did have an elevated fever," Adellia said, looking over the results with a small sigh. "The antibodies suggest that it could be simply just sepsis, but that is highly unlikely, given the sterile environment, and the surgeon who performed her bleed fix."

"No one is perfect. Not even Dr. Yurl," Bones said with a small shrug. He tried not to judge other doctors' mistakes, unless they were completely off the wall. After all, he'd made some mistakes in his life.

"Dr. McCoy," Spock said, as he entered, and he looked down to him. And then he noticed Adellia, who was standing next to him as they went over some test results, and he frowned. "I am sorry if I interrupted something, but there is an emergency on the bridge. We have decided on a plan, and we need you to come along and provide us with assistance," he said, and he nodded to the two of them, leaving.

Adellia stood up, and she waved at Bones as he left. He gave her an apologetic look on the way out the door, and he waved back. His mind was racing about what Jim could have possibly cooked up now…or worse, that green-blooded bastard. That thought was even scarier.

When he arrived at the bridge, he stood next to Kirk, who began to explain their plan. "We've located their ship, near Andoria. They seem to be biding their time for now, but they could strike at any time."

"I wasn't aware we were prepared to go back into battle, Jim…" Bones said with a small frown. He definitely disapproved of this idea, whatever idea he was cooking up. But then again, Bones usually ended up disapproving most of Kirk's ideas.

"Hence the backup that will be assisting us. We have our weapons and shields online, and thrusters…shouldn't be too necessary, right?" he asked the two of them, with a grin on his face.

Spock and Bones stared at him incredulously. "Joking, you two, jeez. We will have backup, and besides, if things get too hairy…well. It shouldn't."

"And why wouldn't it get too hairy? We are supposed to be dead, after all," Bones said, frowning. "That's why they left us, with no communication, and what they thought was irreversible damage. They won't exactly be pleased to see us flying up to their ship, will they?"

"I agree with Dr. McCoy, this is a very difficult situation to be putting ourselves in. It would be unwise to go into a battle without each system at one hundred percent," Spock said firmly, and the two stood firmly against Kirk. For once.

"Don't worry about that. We shouldn't actually be doing any fighting…not our ship, anyway." He cleared his throat. "We discovered where the bulk of the radiation is kept, in the Romulan ship. All we have to do is secure it, and make sure it makes no contact with any race by sending it away in a ship, never to be seen again." Kirk grinned from ear-to-ear about his plan, and he looked at the two of them.

The questions poured out of their mouths faster than warp speed. "How the hell are we supposed to get that much radiation, at that level, into a ship without getting hurt?" Bones started them off, looking beyond incredulous, now.

"Obviously the Romulans can keep up with it, why can't we just go ahead and—"

"I am also curious as to how you intend to transport this radiation. As research shows, from Tellar, the radiation is concentrated in little pebbles found on the planet's surface. Moving enough radioactive pebbles would take an exorbitant amount of man power, man power than will not go unnoticed."

"All we need to do is get it into space, and a pilot of a shuttle will handle the rest of it—"

"This is going to take longer than the two minutes we had before we die, Jim!"

"Will you two quit interrupting me?" Kirk snapped all of a sudden, looking to both Spock and Bones with an impatient look. "This will work. The radioactive pebbles will be near a place where they can easily be spilled out, and once they're spilled out into space, the shuttle will come to pick it up using a magnet attracted to the copper in those rocks."

"We will be doubling up on hazmat suits, two each," Kirk continued. "That will give us double the time, I assume," he said, and thanked the Lord he was given time to pause so someone could interject at the appropriate time for once.

"Well, you'd think, wouldn't you?" Bones said, frowning. "But how much would that limit us? I dunno, Jim, don't you think this all sounds a little…" he sighed, knowing there would be no swaying his friend. Once Jim was settled on something, there was little he could do to convince him to do otherwise, really. "I want a doctor up here, monitoring all of our levels and in constant communication with me about them," he said.

Kirk nodded. "Course. In the off chance that we don't exactly get to release the pebbles for the shuttle to catch, then we'll at least know more about their ship."

"Pardon me, but I must interject and remind you how absolutely foolish this is, and how improbable it is for success to be an outcome in this mission," Spock said, looking exasperated, but not as much as Bones.

"Now you're finally starting to make some sense, Spock," Bones interjected, and the two shared a small, awkward nod.

"This'll work. Okay?" he said, and he sighed, looking down. But even he was beginning to doubt this bonehead plan. It seemed the quickest way to eliminate the threat, and the quickest way to clean up the mess and prevent more from happening. Kirk looked back up to Bones, and mumbled for him to go get his doctor while the hazmat suits were being brought to them.

Begrudgingly, Bones left the bridge, and made his way back to find Adellia. She seemed the, ahem, logical choice to him, given her attention to detail and history with both Kirk and Spock's medical past. He walked out of the elevator, and tapped her on her shoulder as she stood at the computer.

She turned around, and nodded a little. "Ooh, hello. I was just trying to find you. It appears that Cadet Kidman has a flu, but given her allergy to—"

"Try Penicillin 2, that ought to work," he said, interrupting her fully. "I need you to come with me, transfer your patients to the other doctors for me, alright? I have an important job for you to complete."

On the way back to the bride, where he would don his suit, he explained her job. "Forgive me, I know Captain Kirk is a dear friend of yours, but this sounds…"

"Beyond idiotic, I know. But I know Jim, and…well, he'll make this work, somehow," Bones said, and the two of entered onto the bridge. The room was tense, particularly between Spock and Kirk. The two of them were putting their suits on at different sides of the room, before Spock left immediately to wait on the pad for Bones and Kirk.

After a moment, Spock's figure was shown on the screen, along with crucial vital signs, a current white blood cell count with a countdown to the next screening, and other important blood tests. She studied the screen and nodded, taking in any normal numbers for Spock before she turned back to Bones.

As Kirk appeared on the screen, Adellia approached Bones, and smiled gently. "Be careful, please. I'll be keeping a close watch, sending you updates, giving you data—"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," he said, and he gave her a gruff but almost soft smile, patting her on the shoulder.

She watched Bones and Kirk walk off, looking stressed, and she turned around to see everybody's heart rate begin to rise. Adellia imagined that hers did, as well.


	9. Chapter 9

**((A/N hallo! awww, second to last chapter D: i own none of this. thanks to yall for the reviews, and for reading the fic c: ))**

For the purposes of the observation, Adellia was sitting down in the captain's chair and watching the monitors closely. They had just begun to beam on board, and their hearts began to race faster. The first sample of blood was taken automatically from a syringe connecting to the suit, and she was glad to see they were so far relatively normal. Adellia was taking down every minute, literally, for documentation. She had to chart this very closely, just in case something was to go wrong, or at least for their histories.

On the Romulan ship, Bones glanced around. They were in the cargo hold, and the ship was just as dark and dank as he would have expected it to be. Water dripped from here and there, and the main color of the ship was, of course, green. So far all he could see were boxes and boxes of supplies, but he followed the other two, glancing around very carefully as he did. His phaser was held tightly in his shaking hand.

Kirk had a small radiation detector in his hand, and it clicked as he searched around, finding no radiation in the area just yet. Which surprised him to no end, really. Surely it would have picked it up immediately, considering the power behind all of those little pebbles. If they were enough to wipe out an entire planet's population, then shouldn't this little device pick it up? He hoped to whatever deity was looking over them that he hadn't left the ship with a faulty detector. They continued to search, their eyes wondering around, and all of their hands gripping their phasers tighter than they ever had.

Spock's eyes were wide as he took it all in. Neither one of them could barely stand the silence—finally, someone had to break it. "I'm starting to think we beamed down on the wrong place," Bones said, skeptically, and he raised his eyebrow. "I think that little device of yours would have picked it up by now if it was anywhere in this ship, much less this area…"

But of course, just as he'd said that, the detector started going off like mad. It went off loud and Kirk immediately shut it off, for fear of somebody else hearing it. He glanced around the deck, not seeing anybody around of course. He turned it on for a moment and hearing it getting even stronger the closer they walked, but he kept the device in his jacket pocket to hide the noise it was making.

After moving by hundreds of crates, he finally found what they were looking for. A huge, burlap bag full of presumably the pebbles stood before them. Around the bag hovered six small, round devices, which were putting out a cubical shield between them and the bag. Bones frowned as he walked up, and looked around before touching the shield. As he put his hand on it, the green shield was visible suddenly. He pressed against it, but couldn't push through it at all.

"Well this is just great. How are we supposed to get it out of here, and give it to the shuttle?" he asked, and rolled his eyes.

But it was Spock who finally spoke. He walked forward to it. "I have seen this technology before. It is easily cracked into, and very able to be transferred. Finding the device to transfer the contents of the shield will be the difficult part, of course."

"Well, it couldn't be too easy," Kirk said, and frowned. Beyond Spock he saw a Romulan, who fired shots but thankfully missed. Kirk fired back, and he looked around. "Cover me while I search him for the device."

----

Back on the ship, Adellia stared at their levels. She wondered why on earth they were perfectly healthy, when they'd just been beamed right next to a pile of overly radioactive rocks? She sighed, and watched as Kirk's heart began to race faster than the other hearts, but he was still under control. She looked down to her lap, trying to figure out why exactly everything was normal, when Kirk's heart began to beat even faster. Her head tore up to look at the screen.

"Captain Kirk's heart rate is 95, is he alright?" she said, softly, scribbling down all of the stats as fast as she possibly could. She knew her handwriting might prove illegible a bit later, but hopefully it wouldn't be too awful bad.

"Just anxious," Bones replied stiffly, and he watched Kirk closely, hoping that shield didn't have some sort of awful leak in it or something that they weren't too sure about. He looked back over at Spock, who had his hand clasped over the Romulan's face, and he rolled his eyes. Not that stupid Mind Melding business…

"Do you know where the remote is?" Kirk asked, eagerly standing over Spock's shoulder, but back enough that he gave him room to work on the Romulan.

Spock kept his eyes closed for one more moment, and he pulled his hand away, sighing softly, and he shook his head. "No, Jim, I do not." The three of them stood in stunned silence, and Bones let out a grunt, mumbling something about needing a drink.

----

Adellia frowned, and turned around when she heard Uhura curse softly to herself. "We've lost transportation ability all of a sudden," she said, for everyone to hear, and she began to get a hold of some people to see if it was on the Enterprise's end or not.

"Bones," Adellia said gently into the small microphone. Her voice echoed in his helmet back at the Romulans' ship. "Lieutenant Uhura has just informed me that we have lost the ability to beam you three back on board. We're working on seeing if it's an error with us, or an…" she stopped, looking up at the screen, and her blood seemed to run cold.

"Or a what, Adie? What is it?" Bones asked, which caught the attention of the other two with him. Spock and Kirk stared to see what else would be happening, and Kirk suddenly began to feel just a little light-headed. Something told him he knew what this would all be about.

"Do you feel nauseous? Do the others?" she asked quickly, starting to see some minor changes in the recent blood sample taken from their suits.

Bones frowned, and he went to answer, when there was a loud yell from on top of the rafters. He looked up, and there was Decius. He jumped down from the rafters and landed right in the middle of the three of them, looking very irritated with them. In his hand was a small device with the same color scheme as the spheres holding the radiation together. All three from the Enterprise knew precisely what that was, and what to do with it.

Decius stared at them, his phaser ready in his hand. His own phaser was quite a bit bigger, however, than either one of theirs'. "How rude of you to doubt my psychic abilities enough to actually invade my ship. As if I did not already know," he said with a small laugh, and he shook his head. "Starting to feel sick to your tummies? A little dizzy, perhaps? Experiencing some dry mouth?"

"We can talk about this," Kirk said, gently, scared that he was beginning to feel these symptoms. "You don't have to resort to this. You know that Starfleet would exhaust every action—"

"And you know that isn't true!" Decius yelled, and he turned around to face them all. His face was twisted and angry. He looked a little insane, honestly. "You are all so predictable, even if I did not have my little gift. Luring you onto my ship and killing you myself was too easy…but killing you using my brilliant weapon, that was doable. And much more entertaining. I just feel bad I won't get to see the Vulcan die, but since we're both alike…" he mumbled, and he narrowed his eyes at Spock.

"I'm serious, Decius. We will help if you just let us go…" Kirk's skin was getting lighter underneath his suits, and sweat was beginning to appear on his forehead. Bones glanced back at him, going through the procedure to treat radiation, which…wasn't much, in this situation.

"You're already getting weak." He looked over to Bones, who looked tired, but was doing a bit bitter than Kirk. "Both of you, your species…it's so pathetic how weak you are…what makes you think you can take on me?" he asked, and there was an explosion close to them. It seemed the fight from the other Enterprise ships had begun. Decius' eyes looked a little panicked, now, but he knew he would at least get to kill this golden trio.

As Decius looked up to taunt the humans a little more, Kirk leapt up at him. Bones heard Adellia's cool voice in his ear, informing him of Kirk's tachycardia right as he tackled Decius. The Romulan responded by shoving the weakened Kirk onto the ground, and he smirked. "So you think you can just attack my ship—"

He didn't get the chance to finish his monologue, however, when Spock was the one who interrupted him. He shot his phaser with practiced ease, but it was met with Decius' own phaser, and the two energies collided and disappeared. Decius began to run back towards another deck, but Spock was faster than the nervous Romulan. He tackled the Decius, wrestling him to the ground and trying to pin him down using the Vulcan strength he knew he had.

Bones ran forward to help, when he heard somebody's phaser go off in their little wrestling match. Spock was knocked over from on top of Decius, stunned for now, and about right then, Bones had enough with watching his friends get hurt. He ran at the Romulan, ignoring Adellia's quiet mumbles of Kirk's poor state. He ignored everything at that moment. His muscles were aching from the radiation, and Adellia was starting to sound more and more panicked by the moment, but he shut everything out.

The fight was a blur for Bones, and he didn't care about anything other than getting that remote. After what felt like days trying to bring Decius down, he finally grabbed it, and Decius let out a loud, blood-curtling yell in protest. The two of them scrambled up, Bones looking over the device. Decius went to snap Bones' neck in half as the doctor hurriedly tried to figure out how to turn the shield back on when Kirk raised his hand, phaser clenched tightly, to kill Decius, once and for all.

Bones turned around to see the Romulan falling to the ground, and he blinked. "What if you had missed!" he yelled, and Kirk smirked as he leaned against a box. There was no time to worry about that, though. He tried to give the remote to Spock, who would surely know how to use it, only to remember that Spock was currently stunned.

"Adellia," he breathed into the suit's microphone, "it's the radiation that is blocking our transportation." He dragged the stunned Spock over to Kirk's general area, in order to get the two of them in position to be beamed back onto the Enterprise once and for all. "You need to tell me when transportation is back online, do you understand?"

"Yes, of course," Adellia said quickly, and she relayed the information to Uhura. For two of the longest minutes, the transportation remained offline until finally, finally, transportation had been reestablished. Bones was sure they wouldn't have lasted another minute on board, next to that radiation spewing all over the place. Kirk's white blood cell count was deathly low, and even Spock was beginning to get weaker, according to Adellia's reports.

Without another word Adellia got up and ran to the pad, where Bones and the tired figures of Spock and Kirk were beamed back onto the Enterprise. She ran forward and immediately helping, going straight into doctor mode. "The iso rooms have been approved and readied for the three of you, I'll set up some adrenaline to get Commander Spock going again, and start Captain Kirk and yourself on radiation treatment."

"Thank you, Adie," Bones said, breathlessly, and other doctors rushed in to help carry the three men into the medical bay. Tricorders flew over everybody, and after a moment, Bones finally collapsed under the pressure of the radiation poisoning. Adellia made sure the three of them were cared for with no mistakes as she ran the medical bay flawlessly, calling out orders and getting them what they needed. Nothing would stop her from keeping them alive, absolutely nothing.


	10. Chapter 10

**((A/N hi! last chapter D: boo. i own none of this but adie.))**

Adellia helped out in the medical bay, looking after the three of them for about two days, now. The Enterprise was docked, now, and the radiation had been successfully taken care of by sending it back to the planetoid it came from. Decius and his men aboard the Romulan ship were being put through the Federation's legal system. This was never a concern in her mind, however…she knew they would be successful. How could they not be, with that many Federation ships at their disposal?

Kirk had gotten hurt the worst, followed by Bones, and the Spock of course. It pained her to see all of them suffering like they did. It didn't seem possible, for Kirk to almost _die_, considering how strong they all were. To Adellia, they were untouchable; they could not be hurt by anything, because who would want hurt them? The position of power they were in, and the general attitude they all had, led her to believe they were invincible.

She nodded to Captain Kirk as she backed away from his room, and she shut both doors behind her, locking them tight. He was recovering a lot better than she had expected, but she'd done everything she could (even improvising some new treatments), and the results had thus far been positive. Now to go visit Bones, and make sure he was doing alright…

She jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder, and she turned around to see Bones. He was back in uniform, with a wrist cast. She frowned up at him, crossing her arms and taking him in. "You're supposed to be in the isolation room, you could get severely hurt out here, your immune system is very compromised…" she took his good wrist, trying to guide him back to the isolation room where he would be safe.

"Look again, darlin'," he said, resisting her tugging on pretty well. He took out a chart, typing in his own personal password and shoving it to her, looking a little haughty in the process. "I'm a pretty strong individual. You haven't figured this out by now?" he asked with a small snort of laughter. He crossed his arms over his chest just as she did before, and he smirked a little on one side of his mouth, reading her reaction.

Adellia went through the chart, and glanced up at him with a flat expression when she was finished reading. "I've heard white blood cell transfusions also do wonders," she said, giving him a slightly reprimanding look, but it was followed up with a smile. Adellia rolled her eyes, and the smile grew even more, and she forced herself to look down to her feet, away from his piercing blue eyes.

"Mmm, those too," he said, and nodded. "I have Jim scheduled for one a little later today."

"The chances of the body rejecting the cells, though, especially in someone who had gone through radiation poisoning before…"

"Have been weighed," he said, perhaps a little pointedly, and he put the chart back. That would be all he would hear from her on the subject. "And anyway, he's been on strong antibios against most infections found floating around in this disease sponge of a ship," Bones continued, and he shrugged. He began to walk away from the isolation beds, nodding for her to follow him, which she did without question.

"Spock handled it well, but that's thanks to his thicker blood," he continued, and he sighed, leaning against a wall and looking back down to her. He crossed his arms over his chest again, taking her in as she stood in front of him. "You did well, watching out for us and running this place. Thanks." He looked to the side, away from her, as if he required some kind compensation for his thanking her. He was always uncomfortable in these situations, however.

Adellia nodded. "It was no problem. I probably would have asked for the responsibility, had you not appointed it to me," she mumbled, and she looked down at her feet, not daring to look up at him just yet.

The awkward slipped back into the sickbay because of them, leaving the two of them a little uncomfortable. Bones cleared his throat, and he looked down at her. "We're heading back down to San Francisco after Jim is stablized, and I was curious to see if you were still down for that barbecue," he offered, and he raised his eyebrows, expectantly. He tried to pull it off that he didn't care either way, but he was eager to continue spending time with her, preferably not over somebody's abdomen like they usually did.

"I think that would be a fantastic idea," Adellia replied, and she smiled up at him., finally The awkward was back before she could come up with something to say, and for a moment, she looked a little lost in her eyes.

But this time was different. No one seemed to be interrupting them; no one was pulling Bones away for some dangerous mission. Most patients were snoozing peacefully in their beds, and the nurses were off in the pharmacy for the time being, gossiping about anything and everything they normally did. Adellia away for a just a moment before glancing back up at him, and she cracked a shy smile. Bones turned his eyes from a distant computer and looked back down at her, meeting her eyes, and he smirked a little bit.

The two of them stood there for just a few more moments. Both of their minds were racing. Bones was reminding himself how much better off she would be without someone like him to complicate her life, while Adellia was wondering if she was even capable of anything close to…this. Whatever this was, really. In spite of those self-loathing and protective thoughts, however, Bones' hand rose up and rested on her cheek. He leaned down and the two shared a small, very simple and straightforward kiss.

Bones pulled back, lowered his hand, and Adellia took it, chuckling. "I can honestly say that I have never been in this position before," she admitted, and she flushed a little bit in her cheeks. A light green tint appeared, and Bones couldn't help but smile at how pretty she looked when she blushed.

"Well, I had to do something to break the damn tension in here, you could've sliced it with a scalpel," Bones said with a small smirk, and Adellia laughed to herself, her eyes finally looking back up at him and didn't waiver whatsoever. Not anymore.

----

"Earth, sweet Earth," Bones said as he walked on Starfleet Academy campus, glancing down at Adellia with a small, gruff sigh. "As much as I love gallivanting around the universe with Jim and everything he gets us into, I will always enjoy coming back to Earth about ten times more than I would enjoy going up into space," he said, and smirked down at her finally. He was obviously thrilled to be home. His friend was still very sick, but the fact that he knew Jim would make a one hundred percent recovery let his mind go at ease a little.

Adellia smiled back, nodding. As they walked across the quad, her standard issue boots got a little wet from the sprinklers which had been turned on earlier. "Somehow, that doesn't shock me. Still, it's not as if trouble finds Captain Kirk…you know? But perhaps he is a magnet for trouble, and you're just along for the ride." She shrugged, looking forward for a moment before smirking right back up at him.

"What's with this 'you' business?" he asked, taking his hands from his pockets and shaking his head. "You're along this ride, now, aren't you? Unless you've decided you don't want any part of space anymore," he said, and he put an arm around her shoulders for a moment.

"Ooh, no, I'll be in space for quite some time, I think. It hasn't failed me yet," she said, and shrugged a little bit.

In all actuality, the kiss that happened in that quiet moment of the medical bay was seldom acknowledged between the two of them. The vibe between them was barely even noticed. The only thing that had changed between them was the absence of any of those awkward moments that seemed to plague them to no end. They were dealt with accordingly, nearly every time.

Neither Adellia nor Bones considered whatever exactly was between them to actually have a label. They both seemed content to keep it that way, too. Giving it a label made it that much more stressful on both of them, for now. Adellia in particular wanted to avoid specifics, given the fact that she'd been without serious and intimate human interaction for a good part of her life, and Bones was still a bit too distrustful of people since his divorce. At least, that's what she figured.

Adellia smiled as she looked up, and saw the first star appearing in the sky for the night. "They all seem sort of small from down here. Even after seeing them up close and personal, the stars seem a million worlds away." She gazed up with her mouth hanging open, a little awed by the twinkling star. For the first time in a long time she didn't hear the whispers of science when she saw the stars, and she decided to enjoy them for what they were. Beautiful.

"They can stay a million worlds away, for all I care," Bones added, and he took a small sip from his flask, glancing up at the stars with disdain, but with a respect that Adellia still admired them.

She smirked, rolled her eyes, and glanced back up at the star that twinkled down at her. She blinked, and then frowned. The star was gone. Adellia blinked again, and the star was right back where she'd seen it. That happened a couple times, before it finally stopped, and stayed right where it was, in the sky.

"Something's wrong with that star…"

"Ooh no," Bones said, shaking his head and looking down at her. "We'll worry about that star later, but I'm not going to be torn away from my ground just yet. Not until I have a few nights of rest, without having to think about radioactivity or Romulans or…any of that shit. Now come on."

"Where are we going?" she asked, keeping an eye on that star, daring it to keep flickering.

He tugged her hand, and she finally looked back to him. "I believe you promised me your company while we enjoyed a fine barbecue dinner, ma'am," he said, and he smirked. She returned the smile and followed after him, content to spend a relaxing evening with a man who brought her more comfort than stress.

**((A/N WELL? did yall enjoy it? thoughts? interested in a sequel? hated it? loved it? hehe c: also, i'm open for betas if anybody would like one. i literally have nothing but time on me, lol, so if you're looking for someone...pm me c: and, uhh. thanks for reading!))**


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